Story

Act I: "Hey, Calculon's back!"

It has been a year since Calculon killed himself in a failed attempt to win an acting competition by making a death scene more realistic. Fry and Bender are so dissatisfied with Vaxtron, Calculon's replacement on All My Circuits, that they resolve to resurrect Calculon. Bender exhumes Calculon's body on live television, and Farnsworth organizes an occult ritual to return Calculon's soul to his body. The Robot Devil practically gives Fry and Bender Calculon's soul, as Calculon has been driving him crazy with badly performed Shakespeare-style monologues ever since his suicide a year earlier.

Act II: "I was enjoying a happy death, thinking I had died a star, until you showed up."

Successfully resurrected, Calculon returns to Hollywood to resume his role on All My Circuits, but he is rejected by the network president as "hammy" and "old-fashioned". Calculon receives another blow when he views the televised ceremony in which his star is removed from Hollywood's Walk of Fame and replaced with a second star for Robert Wagner. Undaunted, Calculon sees these setbacks as "an opportunity to prove anew" that he "is the greatest actor to ever trod the boards!" Starting at the bottom, he performs "HAL 9000", a one-man play that he had written years earlier; the play is unanimously panned by the critics. Stunned and crushed, he realizes that he is not the great actor he thought himself to be. Fry suggests that Calculon perform his trademark "dramatic pause" to cheer himself up, but Calculon vows never to pause again.

Act III: "Take a bow, Calculon! You're the greatest!"

As Calculon prepares to begin his journey through life as a non-actor, he solemnly laments his former delusions, moving Leela to tears. She suddenly realizes that Calculon is being sincere for the first time ever. She explains that if he could channel real emotions into his acting and leave out the hamming, he could be "great". She convinces him to audition for a bit part on All My Circuits. Calculon goes to an audition in disguise and finds that he is to portray "Calculon, back from his kidnapping ordeal." The casting team, noting this auditionee's "old, past-your-prime" air, hires him on the spot.

On the set, Calculon returns to his old ways, forgetting the humility he had so recently learned. The script calls for him to whine about how pathetic he is and commit suicide by hanging himself with a rope from the ceiling. Instead, he hams it up, ruining the scene. Leela verbally beats him back into submission, and in the second take Calculon deeply moves everyone on the set, even the network president. Calculon reveals his identity and is prevailed upon to take a bow. He inadvertently pulls on the rope that is still hanging from the ceiling, and equipment begins crashing to the floor, crushing Calculon to death. "On the basis of one performance that almost no one saw," Calculon is posthumously re-awarded a star on the Walk of Fame. Back in Robot Hell, the Robot Devil's torments are just beginning.

Production

In 2012, assistant director Aimee Steinberger made three revelations concerning the episode. On 9 March, she revealed that she had "just read [her] next and last [Futurama] script for a while", the script for the episode, that it was "really funny [and] cute" and that she was "looking [forward to working] on it after [the production team finished "7ACV14"]". [1]

On 30 March, she revealed that she was "starting thumbnailing and storyboarding on [the episode]". [2] On 16 May, she revealed that she had "screened [her] last [Futurama episode for] a while [on that day]" - this episode - and that it had "turned out really nice [and] funny". [3]

Allusions

Bender throwing the shovel in the air and catching it in his head is a reference to the video gameChibi-Robo!, where the main character, a 4-inch-tall robot, puts items in his head in the same manner as Bender.

The punishment of one of the robots in Robot Hell is running a boulder up a treadmill, a reference to the GreekkingSisyphus.

In the casting office, there is a poster of 10,000 A.C., a reference to the 2008film10,000 BC.

Calculon's prediction "This is going to be the biggest career resurrection since Jesus:Aloha from Hawaii" is based on Elvis Presley's highly successful 1973 live television concert Elvis:Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite.

Leela circles jobs in the classifieds section of the newspaper that Calculon might be good at. One of those ads is about a robot needed to assemble machinery. In "The Honking", Calculon tells Fry, Leela and Bender that he once was a lowly robot arm working in an automotive research lab.

A picture of Coilette appears in Calculon's suitcase. Calculon was due to wed her in "Bend Her".

Goofs

The Robot Devil is able to trap Calculon in a flask, yet he constantly complains about how annoying he is.

He may have still been able to hear Calculon's voice through the flask.

The script for Calculon's one-man show should have decayed while he was buried.

The material which the script was written on may have been non-biodegradable.

Calculon is unaware of what a second take is, but, in "That's Lobstertainment!", he does at least 95 takes on one scene and, in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television", he says that he doesn't do two takes.

He may have been being sarcastic, and his reaction to Leela's explanation of what a second take is may be due to outrage, not shock.

Quotes

Robot Devil: For Calculon's immortal soul, guess the number I'm thinking of.Fry: Uhhhhhm...Robot Devil: It's between one and three.Fry: Four!Robot Devil: Between one and three, not including one or three.Fry: "M"!Bender: Is he right?Robot Devil: [sarcastic] Yes, the number I was thinking of was the letter "M".

Farnsworth: Now, we just reintroduce Calculon's programming to his body using science!Amy: It's like magic, but with electricity.

Farnsworth: Now, it's a simple matter of reverse-installing Calculon's operating system. Amy, play this installation disc backwards.[Farnsworth passes the disc to Amy, who places it on a small turntable-like device and begins to spin it backwards using her finger.]Installation disc: Rise from the dead in the name of Satan!

Fry: No! We like you and your big words, and we need you back on TV, so we can watch and not talk to each other. Our friendship depends on it!Bender: [screaming] Your voice is so annoying!Fry: [screaming] You always leave the toilet seat crushed!

Appearances

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